Alan Stewart’s UK and Ireland family history news

More military records

FamilyRelatives says: “As part of our ongoing efforts to make information more widely available and also to commemorate the 65th Anniversary of Victory in Europe, we have released for the first time a wide range of records from both World War I and World War II.

“Familyrelatives.com has one of the most comprehensive military collections available online, with over 12 million individual records. At Familyrelatives.com we are continually adding a large number of records to our already broad and diverse range, from the Peninsular War Rolls of the Duke of Wellington, when Napoleon was driven from Portugal and Spain in 1814, through to the Korean War (1950-1953).

“Our expanding records include in excess of 10 million military records related to World War II. You can search for those who died in the conflict from all three British services: the Royal Navy, British Army and the Royal Air Force. As part of the collection we include nine million soldiers who enlisted in the US Army, with records of US Prisoners of war, as well as sources from other countries including the Indian Army, Australian and New Zealand Army (ANZAC) etc.

“Graphic accounts surrounding events at the time of the Great War are released online on Familyrelatives.com for the very first time. These record sets provide a fascinating insight into life in the trenches, as well as soldiers at war. An extract from The British People go to War, which is available now online at Familyrelatives.com, gives a flavour of the mood of the times: ‘Six years earlier Britain entered a new era, the transition from war to peace was dramatic, the country had put on uniform, the sky over the cities was dotted with balloons, everywhere people were digging trenches and filling sandbags, gas masks were being given out, there was a rush for black paper and cloth to screen windows and skylights. There was in the air a feeling of change, complete, inevitable, tremendous war had begun.’

“The unique release of Mr Punch’s History of the Great War dotted with narrative references and poems of the goings on at home and abroad, Mr Punch’s great wit and unbiased account of current affairs provides an unusual backdrop to the more serious events of the day.

“A few statistics garnered from the website in a quick search of the British Army Lists shows that between 1939 and 1945 the Army Officer Corps alone suffered the loss of:-